Small Systems and Big Iron: Linux on Non-x86 Computers

Of the platforms discussed in this article, Power and especially Itanium
both have a questionable future. Although IBM and Intel are committed to
developing future generations of their products, the market for high-end
proprietary processors has been somewhat eroded by increasingly fast
and cheap x86 processors. Many analysts felt that the Tukwila Itanium
was underwhelming in comparison to both Power7 and high-end x86 server
processors, such as recent Xeon and Opteron chips. IBM expects Power to be
a viable platform for a long time, because it still is substantially faster
than the x86 alternatives, but even for them, competition is closer than
it once was. As a result, Linux support for these platforms probably
is going to decline over time, although as long as there is hardware using
these architectures, people will be using and developing Linux on
them, as has happened with “dead” architectures, such as the DEC Alpha and
the HP PA-RISC. ARM, on the other hand, has a bright future, having been
dominant on low-power systems for decades and starting to become popular
on consumer computer hardware, with constantly improving Linux support.

Kira Scarlett has been using Linux for eight years. She frequently ends
up owning strange and unusual computer hardware, and she has used Linux
on almost every major processor of the last 20 years. She also
is interested in graphic design and is an avid hockey fan. Kira can be
reached at kira_arc4@ovi.com.